Copyright board OKs levy on iPods, MP3 players

[ah802]

Buy your MP3 players before the 30% surcharge hits the floor. In an unusual ruling the board (Copyright Board of Canada) found that MP3 players could be considered a "recording medium" with a primary purpose to record and play music. This ruling may have significant implications for storage systems as a whole, and could impact video.

http://www.canada.com/topics/technol...34bb6a&k=52082

The CPCC lobbies for levies on recordable media to compensate artists for unauthorized copying of their music. The group wants a levy of as much as $75 on an MP3 player with more than 30 gigabytes of memory.

[Mingy]

If I'm paying a 'levy' (not a tax) on an device because I might 'illegally' copy music, then I figure I've prepaid all my 'piracy', and so I guess 'illegal' music copying is ok, since I'm guilty until proven innocent.

In any event, I travel to the US all the time, and a 'levy' is not a tax, so if they introduce this scam, I'll just buy an iPod, or whatever, there.

Oh yeah - since they charge all kinds of levies, etc., on CDs, tapes, etc., you may as well just rip the stuff off, since you are paying for it anyway.